Table of Contents
This article will show you how to Add Audio to Google Slides. Slideshows have the potential to be the most fascinating and engaging part of the workday or the most dull. Including music or audio in your Google Slides presentation is one method to steer clear of the latter situation. With over 800 million monthly users, Google Slides is a feature-rich application for creating presentations, lectures, and more.
However, as an instructional designer with numerous hours of experience developing online learning modules, We can assure you that no amount of technology, no matter how sophisticated, can make up for a dull, lifeless presentation—which is, for the most part, what an audio-only presentation often is.
Google Slides has grown in popularity as a tool for making and sharing presentations, whether for business, education, or private usage. Including audio components in your templates or slideshows is one way to make them more engaging for your viewers. Audio may improve the impact of your presentation with voiceovers, sound effects, recorded content, and background music. Here’s How to Add Audio to Google Slides.
How to Add Audio to Google Slides

- Upload the audio file you have. Verify that you are signed into the appropriate Google Drive account for your assignment, class, or other undertaking.
- Using the New button under Drive, create a new folder.
- To upload the desired audio file, use the File Upload feature located in the same area. It should be in a widely used format, such as WAV or MP3, to make it compatible with Slides more easily. To make it easier for you to find, it’s a good idea to call it something close to your Slides project.
- Make an audio file if you don’t already have one available. Numerous online converters, such as the web-based Cloud Convert option or Keerby’s version for Android users, can assist with this. Additionally, converters made specifically for Spotify or YouTube exist.
- Go to your project after logging into Google Slides. Assume that you used Slides to design your presentation and that adding the audio to the appropriate slide is one of the last steps. With the customization tools that Slides offers, you can adjust how the music plays.
- To go to the slide with the audio, use the menu on the left.
- From the menu above, choose Insert. Then, from the drop-down menu, choose Audio.
- To select an audio file from Google Drive, Slides displays an option. Since Google automatically adds audio files to Drive so you can browse through them, this process should be simple. Use the Shared with Me or Recent tabs to focus your search if you have a large number of audio files.
- After choosing your file, choose Insert.
- An audio player and a little symbol representing your audio file are displayed on the slide of your choice. It’s time to personalize it now. The Audio playback options are displayed in the Format menu on the right side of the slide. Select the option to play the music automatically when you switch to this slide, or on click. It’s a good idea to skip the volume slider for now. You should test the volume when you are setting up your presentation space. Adjusting how it sounds on your computer or headphones won’t make much difference when you’re ready to show the slides to others. However, pay attention to the three options below this section.
- If you choose to play the audio automatically, hide the icon. This is important so that it doesn’t show up on the slide and ruin the text or graphics you created. Enable this if you can.
- Choose to loop the audio if you want. There aren’t many cases where looping audio is effective. One example is a slideshow for advertising on a lobby TV, where advertisers may want to set music on a loop.
- Choose to Stop on slide change. This is an interesting option if your audio is lengthy and slide-specific.
Why Audio Enhances Google Slides Presentations
- Engagement: Including audio elements captures the audience’s attention and makes the presentation more engaging.
- Emphasis: Audio can be used to emphasize key points or information, helping to guide the audience’s focus.
- Multisensory Experience: Combining visual elements with audio creates a multisensory experience, which can enhance understanding and retention of information.
- Storytelling: Audio can be used for narration or storytelling, adding a human touch to the presentation and making it more relatable.
- Accessibility: For audiences with diverse needs, audio can improve accessibility by providing an additional layer of information beyond visuals.
- Creativity: Including music, sound effects, or voiceovers adds a creative dimension to the presentation, making it more memorable.
- Demonstration: Audio can be used to demonstrate certain concepts, processes, or examples more effectively than visuals alone.
- Controlled Pace: Audio allows presenters to control the pace of information delivery, ensuring that key points are highlighted appropriately.
- Professionalism: Well-integrated audio elements can contribute to a more polished and professional presentation.
Benefits of Using Audio in Presentations
- Engagement: By appealing to a variety of senses, the incorporation of audio into presentations increases audience engagement.
- Clarity: Audio can help make difficult ideas or concepts easier to understand by giving further details and context.
- Emphasis: By using auditory cues to highlight important ideas, a presentation can have a greater effect.
- Accessibility: People with different learning styles can benefit from multimodal accessibility, which is enhanced by audio features.
- Memorability: Selective audio components can help make the content more memorable.
- personal Connection: By including voice narration or interviews, the topic can become more approachable by establishing a personal connection.
- Storytelling: Audio is a potent medium that may be used to elicit strong feelings and convey narratives.
- Audio can enhance visual components in demonstrations by offering more information or clarifications.
Comparing Google Slides audio features with other presentation platforms
Feature | Google Slides | Other Presentation Platforms |
---|---|---|
Audio Integration | Supported: Allows audio insertion and playback within slides. | Varies: Some platforms may support audio, but the extent and ease of integration can differ. |
Recording Narration | Supported: Google Slides allows users to record narration for slides. | Varies: Other platforms may offer narration recording features, but availability can vary. |
Importing Audio Files | Supported: Users can import audio files for use in presentations. | Varies: The ability to import audio files may depend on the presentation platform. |
Playback Controls | Basic Controls: Google Slides provides play, pause, and volume controls. | Varies: Different platforms may have varying playback control options. |
Compatibility | Web-Based: Google Slides is accessible via web browsers. | Varies: Some platforms may be web-based, while others might require specific software installations. |
Collaboration Features | Real-time Collaboration: Google Slides allows simultaneous editing and collaboration. | Varies: Collaboration features differ across platforms; real-time collaboration may not be universally available. |
Conclusion
You have undoubtedly used Google Slides numerous times to create concise, compelling, and expressive presentations. It offers a useful toolkit that you may utilise to effectively communicate any message to your audience through eye-catching visuals. It goes without saying that effective audience communication depends heavily on images.
Questions and Answers
Once you’ve completed recording your message, you can save the audio file directly to your computer or Google Drive. A speech and audio recorder that is easy to use is Cloud Audio Recorder for Google Drive.
Screen recorder software must be used in tandem with Google Slides in order to record a presentation using that platform. Depending on the device you’re using and the quality you want, you might additionally require a webcam or microphone in addition to a Google account and recording platform.
Indeed. When audio files are made using a good microphone and conventional audio recording software, Google Slides can play back those files. With Google Slides, voiceovers may be created by recording audio and then adding separate audio files to the relevant slides in your presentation.